We all know platforms like the Beagleboard, which are cheap hardware platforms which can be used in all sorts of projects. A new entry into this market is Raspberry Pi, a British ARM board which is slated to be released in the fourth quarter of this year. For a mere $25, you'll have a fully-configured ARM-based 1080p-capable mini-motherboard. The device is still in development, and only a few days ago, the alpha version of the board was demonstrated running Quake III.

For me the fact that they're primarily targeting to run Linux on this is a bit of a minus, in that Linux is a highly complex OS environment. That will inevitably make this device less amenable to the kind of tinkering that we did on our BBC Micros and Acorn Electrons as kids. Linux makes for a much less innocent experience than the old Acorn MOS of the BBC and Electron did.

On the plus side, the RISC OS Open project has shown interest in porting to the platform, and Eben Upton (one of the main guys behind the project) has indicated on the RISC OS Open discussion boards that he'll try to ensure that the RISC OS chaps can get their hands on machines from the first production run.

As a former RISC OS user and programmer I know that it, along with the ARM chip, is a great target for budding new young programmers to tinker with. The relative simplicity of the OS makes it much more easily understood, and the close integration with the ARM instruction set makes it a great choice for tinkering.